Union City Radio

Film or play, “Revolutionary Medicine” or "Joe Hill’s Last Will"; those are your choices for tonight’s labor calendar.

“Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital” screens free at 5:30 today at the AFL-CIO.The film tells the story of a project to build a free and holistic healthcare system in Ciriboya, Colon, on Honduras’ Caribbean Coast. The hospital - run on solar energy, in a community without paved roads or electricity - has provided nearly half a million free consultations and offers an alternative to the increasingly privatized national health system in Honduras. Built and defended by the communities it serves, and led by the inspirational Dr. Luther Castillo – who will speak at the screening -- the project has become a symbol of Garifuna self-determination.

And at 7:30 tonight, singer John McCutcheon performs the play "Joe Hill’s Last Will" at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Rockville; tickets are $29 at the door. This one-man show imagines labor martyr and folk hero Joe Hill's last night in prison, telling stories and singing as he awaits his execution 100 years ago.Go to dclabor.com and click on calendar for complete details.

Here’s today’s labor history:On this date in roughly 1170 BC, history’s first recorded strike took place. Egyptians working on public works projects for King Ramses the Third in the Valley of the Kings were protesting having gone 20 days without pay put their tools down. The strike so terrified the authorities that they gave in and raised wages, which were portions of grain.

In 1903, troops were dispatched to Cripple Creek, Colorado to control rioting by striking coal miners.

And in 1935, Mine Workers President John L. Lewis walked away from the American Federation of Labor to lead the newly-formed Committee for Industrial Organization. The CIO and the unions created under its banner organized six million industrial workers over the following decade.

Today’s labor quote is by John L. Lewis:“You can’t dig coal with bayonets.”

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UC Radio airs weekdays at 7:15a on WPFW 89.3 FMYour Rights at Work airs Thursdays from 1-2pNEW! Subscribe to the Your Rights at Work podcast on iTunes! And get the Union City Radio podcast on Soundcloud.

UC Radio is a brief audio version of the award-winning Union City electronic newsletter, featuring DC-area labor news, updates, calendar and labor history with Union City Managing Editor Chris Garlock. UC Radio is a partnership between the Metro Washington Council and 89.3 FM WPFW. Today in Labor History is provided by Union Communication Services; Rockin’ Solidarity is performed by Joe Uehlein and the Bones of Contention; Union City Radio engineering by David Kelly.

Your Rights at Work is a call-in show about worker rights hosted by Chris Garlock, co-hosted by DCNA Executive Director Ed Smith. Produced by Peter Pocock.